A Justification for Hell
Hell is a terribly frightening concept. There are many things about it that I find to be immensely upsetting, many of which preclude me from rejoining the faith - at least at this time.
Even so, after departing the faith, I have found it increasingly easy to justify its function in Christianity. Once you understand the systems of theology generally accepted across most mainstream denominations, you can see that hell is an essential element in the cosmic equation:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
It is a given in this world that no one is perfect. Because the Christian faith exists in the context of a fallen world, we can do away with any system that would function without conflict, as well as any system that would function without consequence. Those systems belong in the “why didn’t God make the world (insert fantasy version of reality)” realm. You can ask those types of questions from outside the system, but if you are accepting the system as true, as the Bible presents it, you are accepting that God created a world in which there is conflict, in which his creation acts in defiance of him every day, in which all of his most precious children are corrupted by the blood of their forefathers.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
The God of the Bible is eternal. His rewards are eternal. His blessings, his love, his justice. Eternal. Though this is literally impossible to comprehend from a human perspective, as our existence is temporal and quite finite, we must grapple with the implications of eternity, particularly as it pertains to an unchanging, eternal being. This being reigns over a universe that he created, and it is subject to his laws, and to his version of morality. He says that any sin is totally corruptive in nature. Remember, according to Christianity this all started with two humans in a garden eating a fruit that was forbidden. It was not murder, theft, or depraved versions of assault that landed us in this pickle - it was fruit.
So God says doing anything averse to his edicts is punishable by eternal separation from him. It soils us. It makes us unworthy of his presence. It seems a bit harsh… and yet, could a punishment exist that is not eternal?
That’s a question of mathematics.
Any punishment that is not eternal will at some point grow infinitesimally small as the vastness of eternity dwarfs it. This means that, relative to eternity, whether you spend 10 years, 1,000 years, or even 1,000,000 years in hell for eating that damn fruit - the ending of that punishment and the persistence of eternity beyond will eventually render any imaginable number as negligible.
Put simply, any punishment short of eternity is hardly a punishment at all.
“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”
This is perhaps the most important part of the cosmic equation. According to the accepted systems of mainstream Christian theology, GOD IS PERFECT. If this is the case, then any act against him is a grievous offense. I’m borrowing from both John Piper and Jonathan Edwards here; but essentially the argument is such that:
The sin committed by an individual is as egregious as -
the being they sinned against is good.
So to sin against an infinitely good being would be… infinitely bad. So an infinitely bad thing is deserving of… infinitely bad punishment. Put another way - if one were to commit murder, he might be judged differently if his victim were a murderer himself, as opposed to his victim being a pre-school teacher with a clean record. I’m reminded of a comical exchange on one of my favorite animated sitcoms, Bojack Horseman:
“The man was a pedophile-murderer!”
“Well… if you gotta murder somebody…”
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Summary/TL:DR
When evaluating the concept of hell and its “fairness” from a Christian perspective, we must do so in the context of the “truths” purported by the Scriptures. These truths include the sinful nature of mankind (“Total Depravity”), the eternal nature of the Christian God, and the perfection of that eternal God. Because sinning against a perfect being is a moral failing of infinite proportions, the consequences of said sin must also be infinite. Furthermore, any finite punishment levied would be negligible in the context of an infinite timeline - where even the longest of sentences imaginable dwarf in comparison to eternity.